Henryk Rodakowski, who made an excellent debut at the 1852 Salon, where he received a gold medal for his Portrait of General Henryk Dembinski, praised in a poem by Cyprian Kamil Norwid, was (...) trained in Paris. The following year, Rodakowski featured his Portrait of the Artist's Mother, the "masterpiece" lauded by Delacroix. Although a born portrait painter, Rodakowski felt the need to create historical compositions, with themes taken from the history of Poland. Increasingly intense anticipation of a "Polish epic work" was the foremost challenge for painters of his generation. Nonetheless, despite enormous effort put into their realisation, historical canvases by Rodakowski remain scarce and unconvincing, and did not progress beyond the initial stage." [*]